


Being Guardians

by brotherfuckers



Series: Striderclan [115]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Domestic, Family, Fluff, Gen, Guardians - Freeform, Little Brothers, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 02:56:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2797058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brotherfuckers/pseuds/brotherfuckers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of the Striders as they grow up in Texas with the twins being cute little kids and Bro and D trying to figure out how to be good guardians. The twins' ages are between 5 and 7.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being Guardians

“Mr. Strider?”

“Speaking. Or at least one of them. This is Derrick. May I help ya?”

“This is Ms. Montgomery. Dave’s teacher. I need to have a word with you about his behavior.”

“Uh...” That didn’t sound good.

“Might be better if you come in and see.”

“Oh.” Definitely not good. What was going on? “Today?”

“If possibly. The class is out on recess right now. His behavior seems to be fine out in the open.”

That definitely wasn’t good. Bro really didn’t want to have to homeschool the brat. “Alright ma’am, I’ll be right in.”

“Thank you, Mr, Strider.” He hung up the phone, grabbed a hat, and headed out the door. It was only a ten minute jog to the school so he got there fairly quickly. He signed in at the front desk and got escorted to the classroom. Ms. Montgomery greeted him and let him into the classroom. All of the kids were sitting down at tiny desks and coloring in what looked to be pages out of a coloring book. Bro looked over and saw Dave looking like all the other kids if drawing a little more forcefully than the others. Probably drawing both in and outside of the lines.

“You're welcome, but why am I here? He looks fine,” Bro whispered as to not draw attention to himself.

“If you wouldn’t mind waiting a little bit longer. It’s usually when we switch activities.”

“Yeah, okay.” He agreed and leaned against the wall. He got a couple of looks from the kids closest to the door but they just shrugged him off and went back to work. Dirk was at another table from Dave with his back to Bro. The kid already looked bored with art even though Bro guessed that they couldn’t have been at it for more than a couple minutes if they had been at recess when Ms. Montgomery had called him. He was prepared to wait a while longer, the soft talk of kids and giggling over the scratch of crayon against the paper was calming enough.

But it was only a couple moments later before Ms. Montgomery picked up and rang a bell while calling for them to put away their crayons and drawings and meet on the reading mat. There was a flurry of movement as they put their stuff away and moved to the other side of the room on a large piece of carpet decorated with what looks like an aerial view of a town. All of the kids settled down cross legged on the mat. All of the kids except for Dave.

“Dave, I asked you to come to the mat,” Ms. Montgomery repeated.

“I’m not done yet!” He was still sitting as his desk scribbling away.

“Art time is over, Dave. It’s reading time.”

“But I’m not done!” His voice was shrill and it made Bro wince a little.

“Dave. If you don’t come over here right now, I will have to take another star off your chart.” There was a murmur from the kids informing Bro that this was a serious threat.

“Fine.”

Ms. Montgomery looked up at Bro with a pleading look. Apparently it was time for Bro to step in. He quickly moved over to where Dave was sitting and kneeled down next to him. Bro caught Dirk perk up at his appearance but with a subtle shake of his head, Dirk settled back down on the mat with everyone else.

“Hey li’l man, why ain’t ya goin’ over with everyone else?” he asked quietly.

“I just started, Bo. She doesn’t let us have enough time to draw. I can barely get one drawing done and I draw fast!” Bro looked over at the page that Dave was working on and it was only half way done. He frowned. Dave did draw fast. He couldn’t keep a coloring book in the apartment for more than a day even with all of the extras that Dave added. He could burn through a ream of paper in a week. Bro thought about the timeline again and they really hadn’t had much time for drawing with recess only moments ago. “And I can listen just fine from over here, Bo. I don’t need to go sit on the kiddy mat.”

“Dirk’s o’er there.”

“He likes his stars. He gets so many.”

“And it seems like you gets yours taken away.”

“They move too fast, Bro. I want to draw more. Then they take forever on other things.”

Everything started to make sense. They moved from one thing to another to keep all the kids happy. And at a pretty quick pace if the example Bro had was anything to go on. But someone like Dirk would get bored and whiney about too much art time. That explained why Dave came home and went straight to drawing for nearly an hour at a time, just to get it all out of his system.

“Okay li’l man, I get ya. But that doesn’t mean ya can do whate’er ya feel like in the class room. Just ‘cause ya don’t like it, don’t mean that ya don’t have to do it. Everyone has to listen to the rules. Even me. So ya gotta listen and obey when Ms. Montgomery says ya gotta go sit on the mat. Ya gotta listen to her like ya listen to me at home. At school she’s the boss-man. Boss-lady. Whatever. Alright, li’l man?”

“Fine.”

“I didn’t say ya had to like it, but ya gotta respect it. Ya ‘member what I said ‘bout respect?” Dave nodded. “Alright then. Put your stuff away and go sit on the mat. I don’t wanna get called to school ‘gain for a while, ‘kay li’l man?”

“Kay Bro.” He dropped the crayon back into the bucket.

“Cool. Gimme a fist bump for the journey home. And one to pass to Dirk.” He held out his fist and got two taps. “I’ll see the two of ya after school.” He ruffled Dave’s hair as he walked to the mat. He sat down next to Dirk and gave him a fist bump. Bro stood up, waved to the teacher, and then headed out, really hoping that he wouldn’t get another phone call for a while.

* * *

It was a hassle and a half to get them out of the candy shop with only a small bag each. Of course they wanted to buy the whole damn store but neither of the older brothers wanted that kind of chaos. Sugared up kids were a special kind of hell. Especially when they didn’t have time to have the brats burn off the energy at a park or twelve. They still had so much holiday shopping left to do.

But while the brats would be working through small sugar highs, the guardians felt like they were about to crash. They rounded the next corner with their feet dragging and twins bouncing when Bro saw the coffee shop in the corner. They’d stop almost every time they’ve visited this mall and it seemed like this trip wouldn’t be any different. They didn’t really want to take the brats inside where there were so many breakable stuffs at flailing arm level. They did a quick rock, paper, scissors and Bro won the opportunity to go in and buy the coffee while D stayed outside with both boys.

As soon as he stepped into the store with the bells chiming over head, he felt relaxed. He let the smell of coffee seep into his lungs. As the door closed behind him, the shrieks of his playing brothers were muted and he could pretend to be a bachelor once more.

He went up to the counter and ordered his drink first and then ordered D’s, hoping he didn’t botch it. Why did that ashole have to have such a diva’s drink? He went to wait at the end of the counter.

“It’s cute to see your partner and you out with your kids!” one of the coffee girls announced as she leaned against the counter from the other side, watching the rest of the Striders through the glass window.

Bro however had to take a mental check. But she did say what he thought he heard.

“My partner? My kids?”

“Yeah. Isn’t the tall one your boyfriend?”

“Uh, no. Holy fuck no. D’ya not see the family resemblance?” he spluttered out, looking between the girl and D. “Sorry, but he’s my brother. We’re not like that or anything.”

“Oh!” She covered her mouth in surprise. “Oh gosh. We all thought- Oh. I’m so sorry! It makes a lot more sense now.” She tilted her head in thought and Bro tried to brace himself for the next wave. “So which one of you is the dad? Are you the uncle?”

And there it was.

“They are also my brothers. Little brothers. Four brothers. Brother’s all around.”

“Oh!”

Thankfully the coffee was finished by the barista who wasn’t gossiping so Bro could just snatch it up and take it out to D without having to listen to her apologies again. D almost fell to the ground laughing when Bro told him what happened.

* * *

Dirk had been literally bouncing all weekend long. So hard in fact that D had a hard time getting the seatbelt down over his lap when they had to run errands together. He had to keep a tight hold on his hand anytime they were out in public. Dave was also excited but not by as much. He got to bring Bro in last week. Apparently all of the kids really enjoyed the impromptu puppet show that Bro managed even after forgetting his puppet case. D didn’t have any sort of prop to help him out but Dirk was excited anyway on showing his oldest brother off to the class.

Dirk was almost horizontal from pulling on D hard enough as they walked on the sidewalk towards school. D of course dragged his feet which just made Dirk recruit Dave to help pull on him. But it wasn’t like class would start any sooner just because they showed up earlier. They eventually got to the classroom and Dirk directed D to sit down on one of the tiny kindergartner sized chairs behind his table. D felt ridiculous but the way Dirk looked over his shoulder and beamed at D made it worthwhile.

D put up with all of the morning announcements and roll call. He was so glad he wasn’t in school anymore even if kindergartners didn’t have it rough. He had already been through it once, he didn’t need to do it again. Though being one of the twins’ guardians, he’d be visiting the classrooms a lot over the years.

“Now everyone, I’d like you to greet Dirk’s father- I mean, brother as he speaks about his job.” D still cringed at the title. He understood the habit of saying father but still, they had made it clear that they were brothers as guardians, not fathers. Some kids still gave the twins trouble over that, and it didn’t help that the teacher gave them fuel to use. The twins had been handling it well so far so D wasn’t too worried over them.

As he unfolded himself from the tiny chair, Dirk shot to his feet and came to stand next to D.

“This is my big brother, Dee Strider! He’s gonna be a director which means he’s going to make movies in Hollywood and work with a lot of famous people and make lots of money. Isn’t that cool?” It was super adorable how excited Dirk was about his brother. He alternated between looking up at D with one of the biggest grins he’d seen on that cute face. “But he’s not famous yet. At least not to the world. But you know that Otasco commercial?” Dirk asked and seconds later the entire class was singing the little jingle with the accompanying hand movements. As soon as they finished, “That’s D’s commercial! He did it all by himself!”

There were a lot of oohs and aahs. D didn’t think he could have given himself a better introduction and did his best to keep up the high standard that Dirk set up for him.

He thought he did okay when Dirk held out his fist for a bump before D left the classroom.

* * *

Bro was sitting on the couch reading a book that a friend recommended when the twins arrived. It was a slow quiet thing as they first just moved into the room. And then to in front of the futon. And then on the futon. And then before Bro knew it, he had two lumps of little brother on either side of him, under his arms leaning heavily on him. He knew he could continue reading and they’d probably be quiet for another thirty minutes without a problem. But something was up.

“Can I help ya shits?”

There was a pair of simultaneous sighs that creeped Bro out a little. Something was definitely up.

“Oookay, takin’ that as a yes. So what’s goin’ on?”

Dave snuggled in a little more and murmured into Bro’s chest. Dirk actually lifted his head to talk. “We miss Mom.”

“Oh.” He frowned. It happened every once in a while. The holidays weren’t always enough. And spring break was still a bit aways. He hugged the boys closer as he thought about a plan. He really shouldn’t take them out of school even if first graders didn’t learn that much. He was supposed to be a good example and make them go every day that they aren’t dog sick, which thankfully haven’t been that many. He thought about it and then remembered reading about something in the paper. “Yo, brats, get me my computer. I got an idea.”

Neither of them moved right away.

“Aw come on. I’m tryin’ to help. Ya can’t be sulky li’l snots when I am trying to help.” Finally Dirk slipped away, allowing Bro to pull out his cellphone. Dirk came back with the bulky laptop, handed it off to Bro and then went back to snuggling into Bro’s side. Bro maneuvered around the two boys to open up the laptop and let it boot up. It took another couple of minutes to launch the browser, during which the two boys fell asleep against him. It took him a while to find the name of the program he remembered reading and then a bit longer to make sure it was really what he wanted to use. He started the installation process and then called Mom.

“Hello, Derrick.”

“Hey Mama, how’re ya doin’?”

“Just fine, sweetheart. The girls are good too. We had another litter of cats.”

“I thought ya fixed everyone?”

“Apparently some of the neighbor’s cats realized that we were a good household and dropped their brood off here.”

“Wow. Soon there is going to be more cat than Lalonde in the house, by body weight.”

“Very nearly. How are you today, Derrick dear?”

“Fine, fine. Actually the boys are a little homesick.”

“Oh? We just had the holidays.”

“I know and they don’t get a break for another two weeks,” he announced as he pulled up the school calendar in the background. “But, there’s this cool thing called Skype and ya should install it on your computer. It has video conferencin’ capabilities and stuff li-”

“I cannot believe that I didn’t think of that before.” Bro heard the sound of typing over the phone. “What’s your username?”

“Uh, still installing. Do you have it already or somethin’?”

“Oh. I already have it because I was working on a project with a group in Denmark. Det var bare et kort videnskabs projekt, men ret sjovt.”

“I love havin’ a mom who’s up and up on the tech stuff.” He glanced at the installation and it was done. He quickly went through the process and created a StriderFamily profile. Moments later the two of them had the web cameras turned on. Mom smiled at the two blonde heads resting against Bro.

“Dave, Dirk, wake up sleepy heads.”

They twitched at their mother’s voice and blinked awake becoming very animated over Mom being on the computer. Bro smiled as well, happy to give them a little help. He also started mentally planning the trip home for the next three day weekend.

* * *

D sat on the chair that he had dragged up from the apartment and sipped on a cold beer as he watched Bro directing the twins on how to better beat each other with foam swords. It was something that the two of them had talked about even before the twins were born. After Mom’s announcement, the two brothers had put together a list of everything they wanted to teach their new siblings. Fighting had been at the top of that list since they had gotten martial art classes from Mom when they were in New York and they had actually come in handy. The sword fighting was just a layer of coolness on top of that idea but Bro and D would also be giving them the basics if on the off chance, knock on wood, they end up in a locker room full of bullies.

They also had gaming on the list, though that had evolved as the platforms evolved as well. They had the newest generation of consoles in the apartment but enforced moderation, only letting them play for so long and making sure to play with them. It was a family event.

Dating was still a ways off but they would learn from the masters (who were still bachelors, but by choice, they told themselves).

Irony and coolness were near the top of the list. But also in moderation and tempered by sincerity. They would be shields against the bluntness of the world but should still allow for interactions with people dear to them.

Their younger siblings would learn how to dance and rap. The first musical attempts were met with silliness and laughter which almost got underneath Bro’s skin but D reminded him that they were only four at the time. D remembered trying to teach Bro the same thing even though they were both still little.

There was so much for the boys to learn from them, but they also have plenty of time. For now, D could just lean back and relax as he watched the twins finally turedn on their older brother and started to beat him down with the foam swords. Bro appropriately overreacted and they went down in a pile of giggles.

“Oh lord! Have mercy! I surrender!” Bro cried out as the two of them kneeled on his chest. D wouldn’t want those bony knees digging into him.

“What if we don’t have mercy?” Dirk said with a very good evil impression complete with pointing his fake sword at Bro’s face and poking his chin.

“Yeah! What’s in it for us?” Dave chimed in.

“You’re cruel and sneaky li’l hooligans,” Bro told them only to get more pokes to the face. “Ah! No! Please! I’ll do anythin’!”

“Anything?” Dirk asked suspiciously.

“Anythin’.” Within reason, D mentally added.

“ICE CREAM!” they cheered together.

Bro rolled and ninja’ed his way out from under them and haphazardly grabbed them by the waist, lifting them up into the air with more squeals of laughter.

“Ice cream it is then.” He headed towards the stairs. “Ya comin’, D?”

“Yeah I am.” D smiled at his little family. He loved all three of his little brothers.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For more information please check out our work at striderclan.tumblr.com; we have more stories, head canons, art/pictures.


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